About Me

Thursday, 26 November 2009

On this day in 1983, an armed gang carried out Britain's largest ever robbery at London's Heathrow Airport.Over £25m worth of gold bullion bound for the Far East was stolen from the Brinks Mat warehouse, about one mile (1.6km) outside the airport perimeter, between 0630 and 0815 GMT.Police have said a group of at least six men overcame the guards and successfully disabled a huge array of electronic security devices.Insurers have offered a reward of £2m for information leading to the recovery of the 6,800 gold bars - which are all identifiable by refiners' stamps.The members of the gang - who were all armed and wearing balaclavas - also stole £100,000 worth of cut and uncut diamonds.Inside informationThey dressed in security uniforms to get into the warehouse and then terrorised the guards into giving them the alarm codes.All the guards were handcuffed, one was hit on the head with a pistol and two had petrol poured over them.Once inside the safes, the robbers used the warehouse's own forklift trucks to transport the 76 boxes of gold into a waiting van.The alarm was raised by one of the guards at 0830 GMT after the gang had left.Scotland Yard Flying Squad chief Commander Frank Cater is leading the hunt for the thieves.He said he believed they had inside information and were a "highly professional team".

Police estimated 15 people were involved in the planning of the Brinks Mat robbery, but only three of the gang members were convicted.Micky McAvoy and Brian Robinson were both jailed for 25 years in December 1984, and Kenneth Noye served 14 years for handling some of the stolen gold.Noye was released in 1990, but 10 years later was convicted of murdering Stephen Cameron in a road-rage fight on the M25 and is now serving a life sentence.Despite a huge police investigation most of the gold has never been recovered.

Blamestorming: Sitting around in a group discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

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Ego Surfing: Scanning the Net, database, print media and so on. looking for references to one's own name.

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Swiped Out: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

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Good Job: A get-out-of-debt job. A well wired generation's answer to the couch potato.are solvent again,

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Beepilepsy: The brief seizure people sometimes have when their beeper goes off (especially in vibrator mode). Characterized by physical spasms, goofy facial expressions and interruption of speech in mid-sentence.

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Starter Marriage: A short-lived first marriage that ends in divorce with no kids, no property and no regrets.

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Sitcom's: What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids. Stands for Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage.